Sid Haro will become Assistant Superintendent of Human Relations for Milpitas Unified School District (MUSD) on July 1 after a 25-year career in education.

“Sid Haro's experiences in HR, teacher development, and leadership coaching will be a great asset to our team, and his focus on building effective systems through servant leadership is why I feel he'll be an excellent addition to our MUSD family,” Superintendent Jordan said on Wednesday. “Sid’s cultural ties to Milpitas will benefit him as he collaborates with us in deepening our Culture of We.”

“I am so pleased to be here as part of the Milpitas Unified School District team,” Haro said. “I believe in service, and I’m humbled to do so. I believe in the power of education, and as I really thought about joining our team here and what it really means, I’m looking very much forward to engaging in the work on behalf of our children, our community, our students, and all of our stakeholders.”

The Board recognized Sridaya Mandyam-Komar, an Engineering teacher from Calaveras Hills High School, and Dr. Madeleine Dasalla-DiSanto, a teacher from Silicon Valley Career Technical Education Center in the Metropolitan Education District.

"Sridaya is a dedicated teacher of continuation high school students who exemplifies a high level of professionalism, dedication towards her students, and commitment to teaching STEM education," the News Release states. "She developed a course in engineering that now has approximately sixty alternative education students turned on to engineering in a powerful way that could change the trajectory of their lives. Sridaya demonstrates the commitment to students that this award seeks to honor."

This year, students at Calaveras Hills High School spent four-and-a-half weeks engineering endless possibilities for their future through FlexFactor, a four-week entrepreneurship program offered by NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute. The project -- offered to students in Mandyam-Komar’s “Intro to Engineering” classes -- was done in collaboration with the City of Milpitas, Evergreen Valley College, and Flex (previously Flextronics).

Superintendent Cheryl Jordan shared that Dasalla-DiSanto, who was not in attendance Tuesday evening, is a teacher at the District's sister school, Silicon Valley Career Technical Education Center with Metropolitan Education District.

"I don't think that it's general knowledge that this school actually is an extension of Milpitas Unified," she said. "It's part of a joint powers agreement and we along with five other school districts support that school. And, in turn, that school provides an opportunity for many of our students. This year we had about 70 go through and experience career technical education. And we've had some of our students recognized, state and nationally, for their skills from firefighting to dental work. So it is with deep gratitude that I recognize their contribution to the students' success in Milpitas Unified."

Trustees recognized Student Board Representative Alan Pham, who attended his last Board Meeting on Tuesday. Pham was elected to the Board of Education for the 2015-16 school year, at which time he was a sophomore at Milpitas High School (MHS).

"We have had the pleasure of having Alan sit with us at the dais for two years," Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said. "Alan is quite an extraordinary leader. He has completed school early, and he has shared his love for learning with other students and particularly those who don't have economic means to afford their own tutors."

Pham founded the
MATHeasy program with his sister, Ivy, in 2013. MATH
easy is a free math class/tutoring program for kindergarten through 12th grade students, supported by high school and college tutor volunteers. According to Pham, it is serving approximately 300 students at all locations this summer. Since summer 2013, the program has benefit more than 5,016 participants, including more than 2,103 tutors and 2,913 students at eight locations, according to the website.

"Alan, you've really brought to our board the student perspective on many items," Board President Daniel Bobay said. "...We are very appreciative of the work that you've done, and we would like nothing more than for the Board and executive staff to take pictures with you, and present you with a small token of our appreciation for the work that you've done."

To share his gratitude, Pham brought a cake to share with Board Members and those in attendance that evening.

"For the past two years, I've really felt the love and support of all of you. I really feel like I had a second family because all of you really cared for me, and I am really thankful for that as well," Pham said. "I am really going to miss everybody."

MHS student Priyanshi Nigam will take over as the Student Board Representative in the fall.

ACTION

Volunteers chosen for Community Board Advisory Council (CBAC) following interviews

Per Board Policy 1220, every two years, the Board of Education interviews and selects three members for the Community Board Advisory Council (CBAC).On Tuesday, candidates were interviewed in the following order:

Rita Lu - 5 p.m.

Allysson McDonald - 5:15 p.m.

Tom Valore - 5:30 p.m.

Pearl Bray-Chavez - 5:45 p.m.

After the interviews, the Board announced Rita Lu, Allysson McDonald, and Pearl Bray-Chavez as the selected volunteers. They will
start on July 1, 2017 and end on June 30, 2019.

Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) adopted for the 2017-18 school year

Rodriguez explained the Board asked District staff to establish an LCAP Advisory Committee, and through that process they engaged various stakeholders, including by holding several Board presentations and a Board Study Session. During the
June 13 Board Meeting, the LCAP was brought forward for a public hearing.

"As you know, the governor signed the state budget today; that's a $125 billion budget, and our budget is $117 million," Wendy Zhang, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, said in opening the item.

The action follows a
Budget Study Session presentation led by Zhang during the
June 13 Board Meeting. During that presentation, Zhang referenced the 81-page
2017-18 proposed budget report. She recommended Board Members read the first nine pages of the document, which outlines the Governor’s 2017-18 proposed state budget overview, district budget assumptions, and multi-year projections, which includes a $4.359 million deficit in 2019-20
(page 9 of the report). The Budget Hearing was held on June 13, 2017 later during that same meeting.

Staff has made a budget reduction of $2,141,000 beginning in 2018-19 and the savings will be ongoing as recommended during the study session. This will assist in balancing the budget.

Superintendent Jordan and Zhang plan to conduct stakeholder meetings from September 2017 through January 2018 to gather input about how the budget reduction can be achieved for 2018-19. Recommendations will be presented to the Board in February 2018.

"I wanted to really give credit to those who were part of the reclassification study this year," said Machelle Kessinger, president of Classified School Employees Association Chapter 281. "We put a lot of time and dedication away from our own jobs to make this happen, to really dig in deep."

During the 2015-16 negotiations process it was jointly agreed upon that there was a need for a comprehensive study to determine relevancy and alignment in the CSEA job classifications, descriptions, and unit work being performed throughout Milpitas Unified School District. This agreement resulted in the Memorandum of Understanding for a three-year Reclassification Pilot.

According to Education Code 45101 (f), “Reclassification” means the upgrading of a position to a higher classification as a result of the gradual increase of the duties being performed by the incumbent in such position. The reclassification and/or job duties re-alignment process is not designed to reward individuals for their efforts and dedication, nor is it a way to address workload increases. A reclassification occurs when there are significant changes to duties, responsibilities, knowledge, skills, and abilities for the position.

A side letter agreement was made in the collective bargaining agreement of 2015-18 to conduct a pilot three-year Classification and Compensation Study program. The study began in December 2015 with a review of three job classifications including clerical, health clerks, and Technology Services. The classificationreview phase included staff surveys, job shadowing, interviewing, and analysis of work being performed compared to the current job descriptions, and reviewing the language in multiple job descriptions. The Technology Services and Adult Ed classifications were moved to the 2016-17 evaluation cycle. In 2016-17, these two classifications along with additional clerical staff were analyzed by the committee.

"It's just taught us a lot about our employees, about our staff, about our teachers, about our management, because collectively working together as a team has just brought us closer together and we've learned so much about each other," Kessinger said.

During negotiations this school year, the team agreed to extend the pilot study to five years due to the careful and thorough process in which the team has engaged.

The team presented its findings to Superintendent Cheryl Jordan and Assistant Superintendents Norma Rodriguez and Wendy Zhang for consideration of its recommendations. The Superintendent modified the recommendations and discussed the justification for these modifications with the members of the MUSD CSEA Reclassification Committee on June 22.

Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSAs) approved for all MUSD schools

The Elementary and Secondary Act prompted the California State Department of Education to require each school to develop and submit a SPSA for board approval. The intent is to provide principals, teachers, other staff members, parents, and students (at the secondary schools) the opportunity to work together to design and implement a program that ensures all students achieve proficiency in the core content areas. This plan meets the requirement for the categorical programs for both state and federal programs.

The School Site Council for each school must approve the SPSA. The annual plan outlines how resources received by the school are coordinated and utilized to ensure that all students acquire the knowledge, understanding, and skills, primarily in the areas of mathematics, English language arts, and English as a Second Language. After sites review their latest student data, measurable site objectives are established and the SPSA is revised.

"The School Site Councils follow the same process that we do in terms of the LCAP, where they involve their stakeholders in identifying the needs and setting some goals and actions, really aligning the resources that are allocated to each of the sites to meet the specific needs of that site," said Norma Rodriguez, Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Development.

The action plans are directly aligned to the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Goals and identify how each school:

"This year is different in that it's a new template that really mimics the template of the LCAP," Rodriguez explained. "It's a three-year plan so that we can go back and revise and really evaluate the actions and the effectiveness of those actions."

The Learning and Development staff members read all SPSAs and provide feedback to principals prior to the final copy submission. The plans will be effective from August 2017 through June 2018.